For good or ill and somewhere in between mother is the first relationship in life which stamps an emotional pattern and expectations on the adult life to come.
Mommie Dearest is the latest book from Martin Sebastian Moritz, author of The Mysterious 8th House. Insightful, thought-provoking, filled with compassionate wisdom and illuminated by psychological awareness, it pin-points the Moon’s glide through signs, houses and in aspect, but is far from an astro-cookbook.
The author opens up about his own complicated childhood ferrying between his parents and a great grandmother and ‘aunt’, relating it to his 6th house Aquarius Moon. Victor Olliver in the foreword talks of his sensitive Pisces Moon and close relationship with his mother.
It broadened my understanding as I flicked through friends and family charts as well as my own as he relates how the mother’s temperament and often unfulfilled hopes determine the emotional leanings of the adult child ahead.
Almost half the book is given over to case studies of abusive mothers like Joan Crawford; the Duke of Windsor, product of a cold mother and a sadistic nanny; and Jennette McCurdy with a monstrous stage mother. Adoring mothers – with examples of Cher, Ronan Farrow, Proust and Anderson Cooper. Margaret Thatcher comes under ambivalent mothers. Madonna and Jane Fonda under absent mothers.
The breadth of understanding of the lunar experience in the book is remarkable and makes it a library must-have. I can see me referring to it for years to come.
@Callie
Thank you for your response. Yes, a fourth house natal Pluto at the cusp of fifth house. When he moved t. Pluto was conjunct his natal 0* sun/Venus cazimi in his seventh house.
I’ve got Moon conjunct Saturn and it squares Pluto. My mother has been cold, unsupportive, and I’ve been aware since I’ve been conscious that she cannot stand me.
She’s very dismissive of me, yet she gets terribly jealous if I succeed at anything or God forbid, other people actually liked me (and people did as I have Sun & Venus conjunct Asc). If they did, she would try to get in between and make sure she planted negative seeds about me, so they would ultimately see me the way she sees me.
And I hate to say it, it often worked. They would reprimand me for things I had never even done and this caused me to turn myself into a pretzel being the good girl which appeared to disgust my mother further.
I think she’s a narcissist. And it’s had a profound and damaging impact on me and has caused problems in having relationships that it’s been better for me to be single. I’ve been to therapy three times to try and resolve it but her negative voice is so deeply embedded in me which I just can’t remove. I hate how it’s so tied into my self esteem, or lack there of. Unfortunately, I feel I’ve lived out those moon aspects to a T. I just hope as I move into my older years and she pops her clogs, to put it bluntly, I’ll finally breathe that sigh if relief.
She shows up in one of my brothers charts as Moon opposite Uranus. He was her favourite growing up, but since he moved away over 25 years ago. They stay in touch like some school friends you keep in touch with sporadically. He probably wouldn’t admit this, but she was definitely emotionally disruptive, so I think it’s affected him which would explain the distance between them.
My other brother has moon conjunct Mars and Neptune. They have a very fiery relationship as they are so alike. She was quite nasty with him when he was a child. But I’ve often heard him call her a bobble head a few times which describes how emotionally vague she is or clueless about emotional situations, which id also agree with. He’s her favourite today and their relationship has this odd ‘fakeness’ about it where they use each other to their own ends. I think he gets the mother he wants even though he knows it’s not genuine, and because he puts her on this pedestal which isn’t real, she gets to have her narcissism fulfilled.
So yes, I’d agree those moon aspects are one of the most powerful indicators that astrology has evidence to it.
Thank you, Marjorie, for the planetary analysis.
I was shocked when I discovered both of my sons, born 13 years apart have early degree Gemini moons, both within a degree of of squaring my Virgo moon. Both of their father’s abandoned me during my pregnancies.
Thirty plus years later, I still cry when I see a happy couple who are sharing their obvious love of welcoming a baby into their world.
Also, I almost died having both of them; they both have scorpio mars. It’s tragically awful, but they seem to have been killing me, almost, ever since their births… 🙁
How is your relationship with them, both as children and adults? You were exceptionally brave to carry them to term and raise them on your own! Don’t underestimate yourself for that.
Thank you for asking and for your kind words @Nicole
It is complex and in so many ways, heartbreaking; I wonder at the purpose of it all…
My eldest, 0* Sun/Venus Aqua, in a mid-2024 move, 3500km west, with his Aqua wife (late Gemini moon closely squaring my sun), took my three grandchildren with him; no goodbye to me or my mother (casual flip off to his younger Virgo brother and his aunt, my sister).
He blew off a significant number of childhood friends, that are very upset at his actions, and about his behaviour towards me…
I was struggling with C19 vaccine injuries at the time, still am, but that situation amplified a LOT of the symptoms which I believe have had a significant impact on my ability to recover…
My youngest, an adult Virgo (late first decanate) struggling to find his feet; a lot of pushback from him on taking responsibility… (Saturn Rx?)
In general, it seems they both have a lot of take and very little give…
I remain a bit puzzled :/
My sibling and I have oue Sag moon conjunct each other. Growing up there was also significant pushback on financial care for me. Sibling states her boundaries very early on after starting work while I went through college with parents’ money and also sibling’s contributions to the household. I would say check your elder son’s a Pluto transit might have been in 4th house and also affected 11th house (friends) or something else in 2024.
Thanks Marjorie! I always find your book reviews rather useful.